Community Health Worker Training Program

For programmatic or technical questions:
Marian Smithey MS, RN
301.443.3831
MSmithey@hrsa.gov

For grants management or budget questions:
Nandini Assar, PhD
301.443.4920
nassar@hrsa.gov

The Community Health Worker Training Program (CHWTP) provides funding to support programs to train new community health workers (CHW) and enhance the knowledge/skills base of current CHWs and other health support workers. The goal of the program is to increase the number of CHWs trained to respond to public health needs and public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in underserved communities.

Objectives include:

• Expansion:
  • Establish educational training curriculums and recruit, train and enable new CHW and health support worker candidates
  • Reduce barriers to program enrollment and retention by providing support, such as tuition/fees, stipends, health insurance, and child care
• Extension/Upskilling:
  • Provide additional training for current CHWs and health support workers to include the core competencies for Public Health and Essential Public Health Services
  • Develop or enhance trainee curriculum around evidence-based core competencies for public health, including but not limited to emergency response education, prevention, treatment, and vaccine hesitancy research
• Employment:
  • Implement hands-on, integrated training through community-based partnerships that provide field placements in underserved communities
  • Provide job placement services and on-the-job experiential training to new CHWs and health support workers through Department of Labor or state/local registered apprenticeship programs
• Health Equity:
  • Address gaps in community and public health needs in communities disproportionately burdened by COVID-19, health inequities, limited access to technology, and the social determinants of health
  • Increase the distribution and diversity of the health support worker/CHW workforce working in underserved communities as members of integrated care teams

Eligible applicant include:

• Health professions schools, including an accredited school or program of public health, health administration, preventive medicine, dental public health, or schools providing health management programs
• Academic health centers
• State or local governments, including state, local, and territorial public health departments
• Other public or private non-profit entities, including but not limited to community colleges, community health centers, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and community-based organizations and tribal entities that train public health workers
• Tribes and tribal organizations, if otherwise eligible

Award ceiling: $1,000,000 per year
Project period: 3 years
Estimated number of awards: 75
Estimated total program funding: $226,500,000

Links to the full announcement, application instructions, and the online application process are available through grants.gov.

Applicant webinar recording